Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful - Paperback

by Darryl Cunningham (Author)

An informative and funny deconstruction of how the giants of American capitalism shape our world

In Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful, Darryl Cunningham offers an illuminating analysis of the origins and ideological evolutions of four key players in the American private sector--Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and oil and gas tycoons Charles and David Koch. What emerges is a vital critique of American capitalism and the power these individuals have to assert a corrupting influence on policy-making, political campaigns, and society writ large.

Cunningham focuses on a central question: Can the world afford to have a tiny global elite squander resources and hold unprecedented political influence over the rest of us? The answer is detailed through hearty research, common sense reasoning, and astute comedic timing. Billionaires reveals how the fetishized free market operates in direct opposition with the health of our planet and needs of the most vulnerable -- how Murdoch's media mergers facilitated his war-mongering, how Amazon's litigiousness and predatory acquisitions made them "The Everything Store," and how the Kochs' father's refineries literally fueled Nazi Germany.

In criticizing the uncontrolled reach of power by Rupert Murdoch (in fueling the far right), the Koch Brothers (in advocating for climate change denial), and Jeff Bezos (in creating unsafe working conditions), Cunningham speaks truth to power. Billionaires ends by suggesting alternatives for a safer and more just society.

Author Biography

Darryl Cunningham is the cartoonist of five non-fiction books, including Supercrash: How to Hijack the Global Economy, and Billionaires. His comics explore subjects as diverse as mental health, science, economics, and politics. Cunningham has given talks at the London School of Economics and the City of Arts and Lights, Valencia. In 2015 he was one of 30 world-renowned photographers, painters, sculptors, writers, filmmakers and musicians who were invited to contribute to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Art of Saving a Life project, to promote vaccination in the developing world. In 2018 he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Master of Arts from Leeds Arts University. Cunningham lives in the United Kingdom.